Expert Africa's Privacy Policy

We (Expert Africa) treat the protection of all of our travellers' privacy very seriously.

We are a specialist tour operator with a focus on quality, who has developed a business based on the trust built between us and our travellers. This trust is vital when arranging holidays for people to some of the most remote corners of the earth, but it’s also very simply about understanding that we protect the privacy of anyone who books with us.

This policy explains the basis on which the personal data you provide us, or that we collect from you, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully so you have a full understanding of how we will treat your personal data, and please ask if anything isn’t clear.

For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act), the data controller is Discovery Worldwide Ltd of 10 & 11 Upper Square, Old Isleworth, Middlesex, TW7 7BJ.

What information do we collect from you?

We may collect the following data:

Information you provide us by creating an account on our website, such as your name, address, phone number, email address(es) and interests.

Information we discuss over the phone relating to your holiday enquiry such as your name, address, phone number, email address(es) and interests.

Information you provide us on the booking form when confirming a holiday with us, or information you provide via email or phone conversations relating to your holiday with us. For details of all travellers, this may include full names, date of birth, nationality, dietary requirements, medical requests, insurance details and occasionally passport information when necessary.

Records of financial transactions you carry out on our site such as deposit authorisations or balance payments.

We may also ask you to complete feedback forms after your holiday, which are voluntary.

When you visit our website we collect information about your visit using cookies. We do this to help us improve our website, to troubleshoot issues, and to better improve our service to you as we strive to give you a tailored and trouble-free website experience. Please refer to our Cookie Policy for more information on this.

Why do we collect this information?

We collect your details so that we can contact you to discuss your holiday enquiry: to help give you advice, to plan and get the perfect holiday.

If you choose to book a holiday through us, we need to collect further information from you – like your dietary requests – in order to fulfil our contract with you and confirm all the arrangements with the various suppliers.

If you have booked a trip with us, we may send you our brochure through the post. You have the right to opt out of our marketing at any point (see below).

We collect some information on your use of our website to help us to tailor what we offer to you, and to better understand how users use our website so that we can improve it in the future.

How will we use the information about you?

We will use the information we have collected about you in the following ways:

To respond to an enquiry that you have made.

If you book a holiday with us, we will use the information about you to fulfil our contact with you and confirm your trip. This may involve passing your details to various suppliers. This includes airlines, accommodation suppliers, transfer suppliers, car-hire suppliers, and suppliers for various excursions. As is the nature of booking holidays in Africa, this is very likely to include the transfer of information outside the EEA (European Economic Area).

To provide you with information, products or services that you ask us to (such as providing you with a quotation or further information), or which we feel may be of interest to you. We’ll only contact you by electronic means (email) with information which we think will interest you based upon your previous holidays with us / enquiries.

In very exceptional circumstances Expert Africa may be required to cooperate with legal authorities. We may be required to disclose personally identifiable information in response to requests from law enforcement authorities. We would, of course, only provide the information required.

We will not pass your data to any third-party companies.

How long we keep your data

We are required under UK tax law to keep details on all holidays booked through us for a minimum of 7 years.

We will keep your (anonymous) holiday feedback on our website indefinitely as this is a vital resource for our future travellers. This will also help us to remember what you like and don’t like so that if you choose to book another holiday with Expert Africa, we can be even better at guiding you to places which suit you.

Your information which we use for marketing purposes will be kept until you notify us that you no longer wish to receive this information.

Your rights

You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes. If you believe the information we hold on you is incorrect then please inform us and we will correct or delete it.

You can choose to unsubscribe from marketing emails at any point by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email. Once you do this, you will no longer receive marketing emails from us, but may still receive communication in relation to a specific booking you have with us.

You have the right to request erasure – we will erase your personal information where there us no good reason for us to continue to use it.

You have the right to request a copy of any personal information which we hold on you.

If you wish to raise a complaint on how we’ve handled your personal data, please contact us on info@expertafrica.com and we will investigate the matter.

If you are not satisfied with out response or believe that we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Security

Across our website we also provide links to other websites such as hotel and lodges own pages, or pages which may have relevant information for your trip. Please be aware we have no control over these sites, and they may have different security and privacy policies and so can take no responsibility for any information submitted to these sites. Any information you give us is protected by a secure server, and the data you send is encrypted before you send it to us, and is only decrypted when it reaches our server.

Expert Africa reviews our security procedures and updates them regularly to help protect the personal information we store on our systems. The access to our systems is limited to only those who need that information, and we have set up technical measures to protect against unauthorised access.

We will not pass your data to any third-party companies.

Changes to our privacy policy

Any changes we make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page.